The Rape of Africa in Heart of Darkness Essay -- Heart Darkness essays

The Rape of Africa in Heart of Darkness At the threshold of the twentieth century, when exploitation of colonies was tranquil widely spread and the problem of abuse of natural resources and native inhabitants was largely ignored, Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness invites us to reflect on and postulate ourselves when does progress and expansion become rape. Joseph Conrad presents us with this, unfortunately, ageless book. It sheds a glaring light onto the inherit darkness of our human inclinations, stripped of pretense, in the substance of the jungle where those savage tendencies are provided with a fertile ground. The combination of greed, clime and the demoralizing effect of frontier life brought out the worst in people. They were raping the land, practically stealing the ivory from the natives, whom they were treating like slaves, or even worse than slaves, for slaves in America were an expensive commodity and therefore it was in the trump interest of slave-owners to keep t hem well fed and healthy these poor chaps, however, were allowed to thirst to death once they fell ill. ...